After playing dueling 7-game LCS series, the teams did not disappoint and played a full set of 7 for the championship. After having been held to 3 runs in 18 innings of the first two games, the Dodger bats broke out for 12 runs in game three. Boston took game 4 with a walk-off run in the 9th after coming back from a 6-2 deficit…undeterred, Rick Wynne’s team scored 19 runs in the next two games to event the series before the Bosox took the decisive game by an 8-3 counts, with Steven Wright pitching 8 scoreless innings and JD Martinez capping off a great season by knocking out 2 homers and knocking in 4 runs…Benintendi and Martinez each hit .379 on identical 11-for-29 performances…Turner led the way for the Dodgers by hitting .357.

You gotta feel great for Tony Bernacchi, who’s been through some stuff lately. Now in his 18th ASFBL season, Tony has twice made it to the ASFBL World Series but this is his first year to win the whole bag of marbles…he led the Bosox to 106 wins and the series back in 2011, eerily prescient of this season, and as fate would have it he skippered the Dodgers for his first 2 years in the league. You can’t do better than first, and it couldn’t have happened to a better and more deserving guy.

And it means more when you can do it against a guy like Rick Wynne, who leads ASFBL in everything…best lifetime win percentage for anyone with more than one season…17 straight seasons of playoffs or WOR awards…the year that broke the streak was one where he still had 91 wins…*never* had a negative WOR season…four championships…and one of the truly great guys you can know inside or outside a fantasy league.

That’s a season wrap, guys. Thanks for all the fun and we’ll see you next spring!

BOSTON IN SEVEN: In a word, epic. Boston had to score at least 8 runs in each of their 4 wins to outdistance the Astros…Houston was up 1-0 and almost went up 2 when Boston squeaked out a 9-8, extra-inning win in game 2…Houston won the only pitcher’s duel in game 5 to go up 3-2 with Josh James beating Chris Sale…Boston evened the series at 3 each in Houston on the strength of dueling 3-RBI games from Martinez and Moreland…they clinched the series by getting 8 runs off of Verlander and sealing the deal 8-5…Jim Casey has had an incredible ASFBL career, going back to 1995…he’s had Houston in the playoffs 2 of the last 4 years and also got them to the LCS in 2017…He made it to the World Series in 2010 and won the whole shebang in 2011, in the middle of three consecutive 100-win seasons….he was the 2000 WOR champ with the Cubs…and is always a league stalwart, one of the first guys to get it going in spring training, and always a pleasure to chat with. Great year, Jim!

DODGERS IN SEVEN: After taking a 13-3 drubbing in game 1, the Brewers proved they were not going down easily by holding the Dodgers to 2 runs over the next 18 innings and winning 6-1 and 4-1… the momentum turn came in game 4, when the Dodgers squeaked out a must-win, 2-1, extra-inning victory…they went up 3-2 by winning game 5 before Milwaukee evened the deal at 3-3…in the decisive game 7, Ryu beat Chacin on the back of Max Muncy’s 3-run homer, while Ryu himself added all the insurance with a 2-run double on route to a 5-2 victory…Chris Zewiske just got into the playoffs in back-to-back years and 2018 is his best finish ever!…2018 was his sixth positive-WOR finish in the past seven years…he’s had 10 winning seasons since his entry into the league in 2001…you keep getting better and better, Chris, and you’re making the NL central one tough place to play! See you next fall!

By virtue of his strong finish, Rick hosts Tony in the ASFBL World Series! Hope to finish it up this weekend!

DODGERS OUTLAST NATIONALS: Andy’s club got down two on the road but put up a stern 7-3 showing in game 3…but the Dodger bats were just too much in game 4 and Ryu closed out the series with 8 strong innings…Mercado, Hernandez, Muncy, Taylor, and Grandal all hit 2 homers a piece and all hit better than .300. Can’t say enough good things about Andy, who is always the first to put sportsmanship ahead of winning, is a pleasure to trade with, and has shown some grace through some difficult personal times. He’s made the playoffs every year he’s been in the league, and he’s won the championship 3 of the past 4 season. He’s never had a losing season, and it took some pretty big WOR years to be able to say that. Thanks for a great season, Andy, and here’s hoping you have a blissful winter!

BOSTON OVER THE RAYS: The Minsky Magic was almost in full effect; having dropped the first 2 games Tampa won the next 2 at home to even the series…but Sale out-dueled Snell in game 5 and, much as they are doing tonight in MLB against the Yankees, the Bosox bats just unleashed and put up double-digit totals in the 6th and final game. Like Andy, Alan has been in the playoffs every year he’s been in the league, although in his cast it’s just one. But Somers won 85 games his first year and Alan won 91 with his upstart, small-market club. Alan is a great Dad, a great guy to catch a ballgame with, and guy with some national media chops. It’s been great having him in this year, and I’m hoping he ends up with enough free time to come back.

HOUSTON OVER CLEVELAND: The actual Indians got swept; Skrovan’s ASFBL group stole a game from the Astros for a better showing. The final game was epic….after pushing the game into 11 innings, the Indian bullpen collapsed and gave up 4 runs in the top of the inning. Undaunted, the offense pushed a tiring Tony Sipp to the wire and hammered a homer off of Matt Strahm to come within a run of keeping it alive before finally succumbing. Steve has had the Indians since 2012 and has made the playoffs three years running…he kissed the ALCS in 2016 and finished up-2 WOR in his first season. He’s a guy committed to making the world a better place, he made it in stand-up and TV, and he’s the kind of guy I’d love hanging out with even if he didn’t invite me to share the owner’s box seats at Anaheim once a year. See you in the spring, Steve!

MILWAUKEE OVER ATLANTA: After a brief stupidity delay (I mucked up the games so badly I had to re-run them from scratch), the Braves made a real series of it. The high-leverage games was game 4, where the teams dueled scoreless through 11 and 1/2 innings…Christian Yelich won it with a a walk-off homer off of starter Anibel Sanchez, who was still in the game having thrown only 101 pitches before the final one. Danny has been in the league since 2006 and managed four different teams; he’s taken Atlanta to the playoffs for the first time but finished in positive WOR territory for the third time in four years…and did so in the really competitive NL East where 3 teams had really strong WOR finishes…this is his 5th playoff appearance overall. He just changed jobs this week, and was very stand-up about my stammering into the playoffs. Look forward to having you back next year!

LCS: I’ll have the playoffs set up tomorrow and we’ll try to run the games by Wednesday. Dodgers host the Brewers, Bosox host the Astros.

After a tight pitching duel that Tampa took 3-1 in the opener, the Yankees used their bats to even the series in a 7-4 game 2 victory. Ray pitching held the Yanks to 5 runs in the next 18 innings to take the series in 4 games. Congrats to first-year owner Alan Minsky on making AND advancing in the playoffs!

Mark Yee took his Yankees to their 3rd playoff appearance in the last 5 years, and this is his 8th playoff appearance overall, which includes the 1996 league championship. Since 2008 he’s taken the Bosox, Yankees, and Cardinals to postseason play. He took Texas to 110 wins in 1993 and when the actual team crashes a year later he finished +11 WOR with the same bunch. If you’ve seen his facebook feed, its easy to tell he’s a good guy with a big heart, and one of my highlights of this season is when he put my in touch with his niece for a consult on a debate competition. He’s been a staple in the league since the inaugural 1992 season and has managed almost 4,000 ASFBL games. Another great year, Mark!

NATIONAL LEAGUE

The Dbacks showed some constant offense by scoring 3 runs in every game, but didn’t get the pitching to slow down the National bats. The best effort came in the decisive game 3, but Wieters and Abreu went deep and had just enough to hold off a furious 3-run 9th by the Dbacks to take the game 4-3 and sweep the series.

Ben is a key part of the Leckie Family Dynasty in the ASFBL and, having been in the league for 5 years, just finished his 4th playoff appearance. This is his first foray outside of the NL East and his fifth year in five when he’s finished in positive WOR territory. It’s been fun watching him work his lineups and he undoubtedly has the best pedigree in the league. See you next year, Ben!

DCS MATCHUPS

Boston hosts the Rays and Cleveland travels to Houston in the AL. Dodgers are at home against the Nats and Milwaukee has the home-field vs. Atlanta.

The big news was in the NL West, where the white-hot Dodgers finished on a 19-1 pace, including a perfect 6-0 final week, to win the division by 5…but they got a major assist from the Padres, who went 5-1, including a 2-1 series win over the DBacks…Dodgers finished as the only triple-digit winner in the ASFBL this year…the Brewers coasted to a comfortable 12-game divisional win in the central, but didn’t sit on their laurels as they finished 8-2…Playing on the road, the Braves took 2 of 3 from the Mets and swept the Phils to take the NL East by a game…the spoiler team was the Rockies, who gave a huge assist by taking a series from the Nats….and the Bravos did it with more in-division wins than any other team but Arizona…

That sets up the Nationals hosting the DBacks in the NL wildcard…a special shout-out goes to the Cubs, who finished in the 3rd spot…

AL PLAYOFF RACES

Tony’s Bosox held serve with the best record in the league and the AL East crown…it’s no surprise that Cleveland claimed the AL central, ending on a winning note…The Chisox finished strong at 5-1…the big race was in the west, where the Mariners finished with a furious 5-1 as Houston stumbled at 2-5, but still had enough in the tank to finish up by 2…

That means that the AL East has 3 teams in the playoffs as the Rays host the Yankees…I owe credit to John Weerts for noticing this, but the Rays are the lone AL team to enter the playoffs with a positive WOR, while all 5 NL playoff teams are head of the actual clubs…great entry into the league by Alan Minsky…congrats to Adam of the Mariners and Greg of the Angels for just missing out on the final playoff spots.

One more special round of congrats goes the Orioles, who finished +31 in WOR, almost doubling the second-highest finisher,

RANDOM: If anyone on the east coast can prove that they watched the end of the San Diego vs. Arizona game on Sept 28 — two eliminated teams that played 15 innings over 5 hours, ending at 3am EST — I’ll give them 10 free waivers to start the year.

HOMER TIME: There are 10 former CSUF Titans in the MLB playoffs, including Kris Davis. Sure, he’s leading MLB in homers, but the stat nerd in me is far more impressed by this: He’s hit exactly .247 for four years in a row. That’s got to be a record, right? And maybe one that will never be broken. The odds against any other player ever hitting .247 for four consecutive years where they qualified for batting title have to be astronomical…and I am equally impressed by Terrance Gore; when I heard he had more career stolen bases than plate appearances I thought it must be like 3 and 2, but he’s played in 5 consecutive season and has 27 stolen bases (19 plate appearances)…I’m almost more impressed that he has 63 games and only 19 plate appearances…

PLAYOFF PROTOCOL: I’ll have the wild card schedule set up by tomorrow and will ask the Nats, DBacks, Rays, and Yankees to enter their lineups by Friday morning. We play a best-of-3 wildcard series, and the winner gets the top seed (Boston in the AL, Dodgers in the NL). Houston hosts Cleveland in the ALDS while the Brewers travel to Atlanta in the NL. Remember that regular season use stats are now frozen, so that while players continue to adjust they cannot become more (or less) overused than they are right now.

RACES: Washington turned a 5-1 week (and 9 of the last 10 run) into a half game lead in the NL East, where nobody else had more than 3 wins…Atlanta and the Nats are tied over the last 20 games and Atlanta has the edge over the last 30…Both teams are also in impressive WOR territory…The Cubs picked up a couple games on the Brewers, who might have a big enough cushion with only a few weeks left…The Dodgers had a perfect 7-0 week to bring themselves to within striking distance of the DBacks…Rockies had a winning week and Padres were an impressive 4-1…Boston edged forward by a couple in the East, and while Cleveland is coasting in the AL central the Chisox and Twins each had solid weeks…Houston has taken a solid-sized lead in the AL west, and Anaheim, who has the best AL west record over the last 20 games, has jockeyed into second place…Tampa Bay cooled off, kind of, and is now a front-runner for the second wildcard spot…Angels can now challenge for that…Cardinals are scraping for a playoff chance but don’t blame the pitching…their real team ERA is 3.16, behind only Houston…Tampa Bay is 3rd at 3.22…best real OPS goes to Washington, followed by the Dodgers….of all the ASFBL subjective decisions that have been made, I am happiest about keeping the Angels associated with Anaheim, as they are not in the Los Angeles city limits, or the Los Angeles county limits, and I refuse to drive to Los Angeles to see the Angels play…BIG WEEKS: Chris Sale struck out 27 in 18 innings last week…the real news is that opponents managed to score 2 runs…Zack Wheeler (now of the Nats) threw 16 innings…emerging Anaheim (yes, Anaheim) closer Ty Buttrey (who has the nickname “Butt”) stranded all 3 inherited runners while striking out 12…Jonathan Villar and Justin Smoak each hit 4 homers last week…Smoak knocked in 10…Justin Turner powered the Dodger surge by hitting .400 over 30 AB…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Charlie Morton of HOU had 11 strikeouts against DET on 9/10/2018
Josh James of HOU had 16 strikeouts against DET on 9/11/2018
Zack Wheeler of WAS had 10 strikeouts against PHI on 9/11/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 11 strikeouts against TOR on 9/11/2018
Jose Quintana of CHC had 10 strikeouts against MIL on 9/11/2018
Reynaldo Lopez of CWS had 11 strikeouts against KCR on 9/11/2018
TEX and LAA played 13.5 innings on 9/11/2018
Anibal Sanchez of ATL struck out 4 times against SFG on 9/11/2018
Mike Clevinger of CLE had 10 strikeouts against TBR on 9/12/2018
Justin Verlander of HOU had 12 strikeouts against DET on 9/12/2018
Carlos Rodon of CWS had 12 strikeouts against KCR on 9/12/2018
Patrick Corbin of ARI had 10 strikeouts against COL on 9/12/2018
Marcus Semien of OAK struck out 4 times against BAL on 9/13/2018
Fernando Rodriguez Jr. of BOS had 10 strikeouts against TOR on 9/13/2018
Curtis Granderson of TOR struck out 4 times against BOS on 9/13/2018
Russell Martin of TOR struck out 4 times against BOS on 9/13/2018
Jack Flaherty of STL had 12 strikeouts against LAD on 9/13/2018
Yoan Moncada of CWS struck out 4 times against BAL on 9/14/2018
Avisail Garcia of CWS struck out 4 times against BAL on 9/14/2018
Blake Snell of TBR had 12 strikeouts against OAK on 9/14/2018
Ramon Laureano of OAK struck out 4 times against TBR on 9/14/2018
Whit Merrifield of KCR hit 3 home runs against MIN on 9/14/2018
Jorge Bonifacio of KCR had 5 hits against MIN on 9/14/2018
CWS and BAL played 13.5 innings on 9/15/2018
Charlie Morton of HOU had 10 strikeouts against ARI on 9/15/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 16 strikeouts against NYM on 9/16/2018
Matt Olson of OAK hit 3 home runs against TBR on 9/16/2018
Matt Olson of OAK had 7 RBI against TBR on 9/16/2018

Let’s congratulate Steve Skrovan, lifelong Browns fan, on the first season opener that didn’t end in a loss since 2004. Of course, it did end in a tie, and those can’t happen in baseball, but still. As more proof that baseball holds more promise, Steve’s Indians went on a 7-0 tear and he wrapped his hands more firmly around the first place prize in the AL central…

CRUCIAL SERIES

The Brewers took 2 of 3 from the Cubs, a big series for them….and they really owe a debt of gratitude to the Nationals, who swept the Cubs in 4…the dust settled with a 4.5-game surge for the Milwaukeeans…in the NL East, the Braves ran into the buzzsaw of the Bosox (best AL record in the ASFBL) and the DBacks (best NL record in the ASFBL), which gave the Nationals a chance to pick up some ground…”Never Say Die” award goes to Pittsburgh, who ignored the standings and went 5-1…Tampa Bay just won’t stop; they weren’t paired against the top of the division this week but they did go 5-1, all in divisional games, and still have the best AL record over the last 30 games…by kind of a lot…saving the best for last, there have never been baseball races closer or better than our AL West, where 4 teams remain within 2.5 games of first…Oakland won series against the Yankees and Texas, while Houston swept Minnesota but dropped to Boston…Anaheim broke even with 2 road series…and all those teams owe Baltimore, who managed to take all 3 from the Mariners…Tampa is the hottest team and the Yankees are dangerous (they would lead the other 2 AL divisions), but the Bosox are holding down the fort, first place, and the top record in the ASFBL…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Austin Jackson of ATL struck out 4 times against BOS on 9/3/2018
BOS and ATL played 14.5 innings on 9/3/2018
Tyler Saladino of CWS hit 3 home runs against DET on 9/3/2018
Logan Forsythe of MIN struck out 4 times against HOU on 9/3/2018
CC Sabathia of NYY had 10 strikeouts against OAK on 9/3/2018
Jacob deGrom of CIN had 11 strikeouts against PIT on 9/4/2018
Carlos Carrasco of CLE had 13 strikeouts against KCR on 9/4/2018
David Bote of CHC struck out 4 times against MIL on 9/4/2018
Eduardo Escobar of MIN struck out 4 times against HOU on 9/4/2018
Carlos Gonzalez of SEA struck out 4 times against BAL on 9/4/2018
Jonathan Schoop of BAL robbed 3 hits against SEA on 9/5/2018
Kris Bryant of CHC struck out 6 times against WAS on 9/6/2018
CHC and WAS played 18.5 innings on 9/6/2018
Zack Greinke of ARI had 11 strikeouts against ATL on 9/6/2018
Matthew Boyd of CIN had 10 strikeouts against SDP on 9/7/2018
Hunter Renfroe of SDP struck out 4 times against CIN on 9/7/2018
Justin Verlander of HOU had 11 strikeouts against BOS on 9/7/2018
Jake Cave of MIN hit 4 home runs against KCR on 9/7/2018
Kyle Freeland of COL had 10 strikeouts against LAD on 9/7/2018
Patrick Corbin of ARI had 10 strikeouts against ATL on 9/7/2018
Giancarlo Stanton of NYY struck out 4 times against SEA on 9/7/2018
Carlos Gonzalez of SEA struck out 5 times against NYY on 9/7/2018
Mitch Haniger of SEA struck out 5 times against NYY on 9/7/2018
NYY and SEA played 17.5 innings on 9/7/2018
Corey Kluber of CLE had 12 strikeouts against TOR on 9/8/2018
Blake Snell of TBR had 13 strikeouts against BAL on 9/8/2018
Jack Flaherty of STL had 10 strikeouts against DET on 9/8/2018
Zack Godley of ARI had 10 strikeouts against ATL on 9/8/2018
Steven Souza of ARI struck out 4 times against ATL on 9/8/2018
HOU and BOS played 14.5 innings on 9/9/2018
Noah Syndergaard of BAL had 10 strikeouts against TBR on 9/9/2018
Vidal Nuno of TBR had 10 strikeouts against BAL on 9/9/2018
Jacob deGrom of CIN had 13 strikeouts against SDP on 9/9/2018
Mike Montgomery of CHC struck out 4 times against WAS on 9/9/2018
Walker Buehler of LAD had 10 strikeouts against COL on 9/9/2018